Great stuff.I'd have loved to have had a translation - looked like an explanation going on. The matrix looked like a US Lanston display one to me, in the special holder used for casting on the Composition Caster one character at a time. The metal squirting at the end is perfectly normal to check the nozzle is clear, and I think was just to show the nozzle and molten metal in this case! I was intrigued by the stripped-down look of the machine - mine (a UK one) has lots on the top hiding the wedges he demonstrates at one point, and over the controls as well: maybe the machine was only used for casting this way, not for normal composition work.

Eric Brown

Far from messing around these guys were demonstrating a Monotype Sorts caster, I have not seen one quite like this as it looks like a cross between a composition caster with the complicated gearing system of a Super caster. It has no air tower for taking the spool paper of a composition caster, but unlike a super caster it looks like it will not cast leads and rules as it has no cutting mechanism.

- the springbox and its cam- the locking bar cam lever and the mechaniism to lock the bars- all the pins are missing, - the galley-mechanism at the front- the tray above the galley-mechanism- the matrix-case is always in a fixed position

therefor this machine is only to be used sorts, using american super caster mats, and it cannot be used for texts.

What is more - the caster looks like it has always been like that. I'd say it was built as a type&rule caster, and not a composition caster.After studying some plates in the English spare parts book, it occurs that they also made a simpler non-composing machine based on the composition caster, but vastly simplified.

The justification pin block is not there (instead, a solid piece of metal without holes in it), some of the unneeded cam levers are not installed (most notably: for the tongs springbox). The diecase is actually not in fixed position, it can be moved by means of hand-operated draw rods instead of the tongs mechanism.

Here: and you can see a simmilar machine and its matrix case positioning system. Rather than being "stripped down" - it was not "built up" in the first place.

"10 most common mistakes made by beginner programmers: missing semicolon, undeclared variable and an off-by-one error."Technical specialist at Book Art Museum, Lodz, Polandhttp://book.art.pl/index.php/en/